SMARTY, the app for reducing traffic and providing incentives to use alternative transport

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Smart Transport for Sustainable City, SMARTY, is the innovative multi-device solution created by AlmavivA, Softec and other partners in the Tuscany Region that recommends "intelligent" routes in real time

Rome - 6 May 2015 - An infomobility services and electronic payment platform that promotes the integrated use of traditional and alternative transport systems like buses, car pooling and bike sharing, while at the same time, protecting the environment, ensuring energy efficiency and reducing costs.

Introducing the industrial research project SMARTY that has just been completed, and resulted in a prototype solution commissioned by the Tuscany Region from AlmavivA in conjunction with the SMARTY partnership, comprising Softec SpA that headed up the project, Bassilichi SpA, the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Florence, the University of Pisa and KKT.

SMARTY is more than just a navigator: it is an innovative system integrating the data made available in real time by local bodies (Open Data); it provides “intelligent” solutions that address the mobility needs of citizens in the city. It recommends routes that promote the use of public transport, to relieve congestion on the roads; in turn, it feeds through useful information on traffic and mobility to the Province of Florence.

Using the app, the user can plan routes in real time to cover multiple objectives, based on the preference criteria set, such as the traffic situation along the route, the availability of alternative/sustainable transport (bike sharing, car sharing, etc.), or environmental parameters relating to pollution. SMARTY allows the user to pay for the services used and be updated on any delays to public transport or the current congestion in parking areas.

The app allows for two-way communication: users can report back-ups or traffic congestion, and the system then uses this information to send out alerts to whoever is in the vicinity of the critical area and suggest alternative routes.

AlmavivA was responsible for the processing module that calculates the tariffs for the public transport needed to cover the route. It also built the arterial system for this innovative and complex “organism”, namely the cloud-based platform, which guarantees the integration, interoperability and orchestration of all the services implemented by the SMARTY partners (tariffs, payments, website, calculating routes, managing parking), as well as the connection to and from the external systems (like those of local bodies) that draw and feed through data. The greatest challenge in terms of technology was the acquisition of masses of data in real time and the development of data-mining techniques, with optimisation and forecasting algorithms, which could interpret the mobility and environmental parameters.